Sometimes I think maybe if we were just battling one thing at a time… it might be a little easier.  Maybe I am wrong, just wishful thinking.  I guess I won’t know because apparently we are tasked with completing multiple battles simultaneously.

Last night we spent hours full of uninterrupted discussion with the pastors of the church where we will be spending our time.  It is hard to know what to call it.  I am not in any way prepared to give up my membership to my home church, and they know and respect that.  Yet, it was so nice, so warm and comfortable to sit with my husband, and these pastors, and have discussions, both personal and theological.   No one was judged.   Everyone was comfortable.  Mixed emotions 2 and a half hours later, past everyone’s bed time.  Our children finished playing, and we left – tired but peaceful.  It’s nice to know where we will be every week for a while.  Its kind of like finding that first permanent job after years of subbing.  It is also nice to have my husband by my side.  God works in very strange ways.

We had planned to be out of the house at 9 to go apple and pumpkin picking this morning.  We were a bit delayed by the late night, but we made it.  It was so nice to see Meghan happy.  She doesn’t ask for much, but had specifically asked for this.

We made her walk, and she did well for a while. Only towards the end did the pain in the legs start in.  Cowden’s Syndrome always nipping at your heels as you try to kick it to the curb.

So after such a nice morning – with only minimal pain, a bit of fatigue and a lot of happy, we headed home.

I had missed my standard Friday night grocery shopping at our meeting last night, so we decided to stop by Wegman’s on the way home.

I think we made it about three aisles before a look of horror crossed Meghan’s face.  Then there were the tears.

She opened her mouth and again, for the second time in the two weeks since she has had her braces, a bracket popped off.  Now I know this isn’t totally uncommon, but twice already seems excessive for a kid who doesn’t eat ANYTHING she shouldn’t, and who is so attentive to these braces your would never imagine she was 9.

So, as we begin to reassure her that we will take her to get it fixed, SHE reminds US that it is a holiday weekend, and with sheer frustration on her face, she realized – half to herself – and half out loud – that it would be Tuesday before she could have it fixed.

I really was stunned.  There in the middle of the grocery store, with a cart half full, our peaceful couple of hours was starting to crumble – again.  Daddy took Meghan to some neighboring stores.  I quickly finished the shopping, and we headed home.

The car ride was quiet.  I was twisted.  This kid has had enough.  More than enough.  A break for one WHOLE day would be nice.  As I sat, I shed a few tears of frustration.  I left a message on the answering machine at the orthodontist, trying to decide if this was a “true” emergency.  My husband decided it was and called the cell phone number soon after we got home.

He called us within an hour.  He is a good man.  But, he was away.  “Clip it,”  he told my husband.  “Take the wire and the bracket off.  I will fix it next week.”  And so the electrician turned orthodontist, and off came the bracket.

Peace.

And yet as I looked in her mouth, the mouth I help her brush and floss, and I see the swollen gums, enveloping her braces, my stomach turns at the conversation next week.  We will both be told her oral hygiene is poor.  I am sure of it.

Cowden’s means overgrowth.  The gums are supersensitive.  Reacting to the braces.  Trying to swallow them up.   We floss, we brush, we poke and prod.  No success.  Certainly we are trying out best.

Nothing is simple.  Every battle is crowded by another.  It’s not just the Cowden’s Syndrome.  And it’s not just the regular growing up stuff, like changing bodies, and braces, and homework, and after school activities.  It’s the overlap.  That’s where things somehow always seem to get tricky.  Right there in the overlap.

Daddy made a tasty dinner.  Chicken wrap with fresh guacamole.  Things were looking up.  Then, they started to decorate the BIG pumpkin.

Sleeping peacefully.  Potentially a dreadful weekend, salvaged by a clipped wire.  Emotions all across the spectrum.  Another day in the life.  Another day of sorting through the overlap.

And, believe it or not – since I share it with the two I love the most – at the end of the day I wouldn’t have it any other way!-